Peter Beck and Andreas Schliep demonstrated how they are using and debriefing the Ballpoint Game, a simulation exercise which has been created in the current version by Boris Gloger.

Purpose: Establish a feeling of teamwork, estimation and velocity improvement and the value of frequent retrospectives Participants: 5 + facilitator Material: Tennis or other balls, Timer to track rounds, flipchart for results and debriefing, different color markers

The facilitator prepares a flipchart sheet with a blank table for the results. The table should be placed in the lower half of the flipchart, with three rows - Iteration, Estimate, Actual - and 6 to 9 columns, depending on the number of iterations the group should play (see picture).

The facilitator states that he has just started a new enterprise: the ballpoint factory. The purpose of this factory is to deliver ballpoints. Luckily, the participants are the right people to do that. They can deliver ballpoints as a group, following the three roles:

1. Each ball has to be touched, thrown and caught by each member of the group to score one ballpoint
2. The ball cannot be passed to the direct neighbour, which is the person standing near to one's own shoulders facing in the same direction
3. Each ball needs to have air time, thus it cannot be given to somebody else but has to be thrown, for example.

The facilitator gives the group 2-3 minutes to create an initial setup, a counting method and an estimate for an iteration time of two minutes.

The estimate for the current iteration is tracked in the result table. An iteration consists of 2 minutes of scoring. The group can figure out whatever it wants to score ballpoints, while they have to stick to the three rules. The facilitator keeps the time and announces the end of the iteration. He then asks the group for there actual score. If the group has violated the rules, the facilitator may credit them zero points as a result.

The group gets 2-3 minutes to figure out how to improve their result and increase their estimation accuracy. In order to support cooperation in the group, the facilitator can suggest retrospective improvements step by step, like:

• Chose a speaker to avoid people speaking at the same time
• Ask, what went well and what could be improved
• Do the same and visualize the results on a flipchart
• Let the exercise facilitator run the retrospective

The facilitator can state around iteration 3 or 4, that there are teams who make 100 or more ballpoints within 2 minutes.

(to be continued)